My first official day as a student teacher

On Tuesday, I had my first official day in my student-teaching 2nd grade classroom. Since this was my first day, I sat in a desk at the side of the classroom and observed. The students begin to arrive at 9:10, so by arriving at 9 today I was able to meet with my teacher before class. She explained to me the general schedule she tries to follow everyday and the morning routine. First, the students put their jackets and backpacks in the lockers that are located in the hallway outside the classroom. Then, the bring their reading journals into the class and turn them in by alphabetically arranged stacks on a desk at the side of the classroom. This prevents traffic jams, which is especially important in this classroom because it already overloaded by 5 students.

Then, the students read the instructions on the board, written before the students arrive. First, they get two pencils from a basket at the back of the room and sharpen them. According to my co-op teacher, this prevents the disruptive noise of students trying to sharpen pencils in the middle of lessons. I thought this was a great idea. Even if both pencils broke, a neighbor of the student would probably have one available to lend.

Next, the students return to their desks and take out their morning journals. The prompt on Tuesday was: “If I were President I would….” and the children responded with their ideas in their journal. My teacher recommends journaling in the morning because it calms and quiets the students at the beginning of the day and helps them to focus before lessons begin. Following journal time, during which my teacher walked around the room and helped students if they needed it, math period began. Then, she handed out the “Math Mad Minute,” a worksheet the children had 4 minutes to work on. The goal was to complete as many problems on the worksheet as possible, and as correctly as possible. Next, they continued with the math lesson of the day, which was working with calendars. They did 2 worksheets that not only quizzed their knowledge of calendars, but also their ability to follow directions.

At that point, I had to leave the school so I could get back for my own classes! I learned a lot during the day, including what a terrible last name I have for students to remember/pronounce. I guess I will have to abbreviate it to the first letter of my last name. I will be in the classroom again next Wednesday, and I can hardly wait!

Today I read a blog that I thought was particularily interesting. I am teaching second grade, which is a particularily impressionable age. In her blog at http://heartofateacher.blogspot.com/, Mrs. Suzanne Porath, a middle school educator, talks about initiative. She asks, "How do we "teach" initiative?"

I think this is a very valid point to consider. In a classroom situation, both the student and the teacher have opportunities to take initiative. I believe the responsibility to show initiative begins with the teacher, and then the students can be expected to model initiative, especially if they are at a young age. The blog comes as a challenge to me. For my students to properly learn to take initiative, which is a truly important life skill, they first need to see initiative shown by me. I found the link at the bottom of the blog particularily informative and helpful. Everyone should check this blog out, there is really great information on it!

Thats all for now...more to come another day!